Russell Wilson inspires to have more African-Americans playing baseball
The Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl-winning quarterback Russell Wilson has been a star everywhere he’s been and that includes at Texas Rangers Spring Training where the rising star has been taking part in team activities and where the Rangers are soaking up his charisma and leadership qualities like a sponge.
Wilson took out the lineup card and drew a loud ovation from a number of Seahawks fans in attendance and afterward offered up some of his highlights of the day from his perspective and USA Today Sports MLB columnist Bob Nightengale tweeted them out.
Russell Wilson calls his day with the #Rangers "better than anything I imagined."
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 3, 2014
The #Rangers, who drafted Jameson Winston, have been blown away by Russell Wilsons character in his workout today
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 3, 2014
Wilson also said he’s going to compete on Dancing with the Stars at some poin saying it’s a matter of when and not if, but the most significant thing to come out of his appearance today is that Wilson hopes to inspire African-Americans to play baseball.
Russell Wilson says he inspires to get more African Americans playing the game of baseball
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 4, 2014
For years, there has been dwindling numbers of African-Americans playing baseball as they are flocking to football or basketball the cost of playing the game is driving away the youth as Major League Baseball has seen a steady influx of Latin American players.
Can Wilson have as big of an impact on young African-Americans playing baseball while he plays football? I’m not sure, but if he can team up with players like Andrew McCutchen, Jimmy Rollins, Carl Crawford, Justin Upton and CC Sabathia, then a significant impact can potentially be made.
I will never doubt anything Wilson aspires to accomplish and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can to do to inspire countless kids in football and baseball.